Author: Staff Writer
Sustainalytics – the largest independent provider of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) research and ratings – has ranked Vodacom Group as the world’s number one telecommunications service company based on ESG performance. Indicative of how Vodacom has accelerated its commitment to sustainable development action, the 2021 Sustainalytics report saw the company improve to 1st place from 2nd place in 2020 out of 221 companies in the sector. In terms of risk globally, we have moved from 6th to 4th place out of 12 965 companies, which is no small feat. “We are honoured to receive this first-place ranking, as it reflects our…
Pick n Pay’s Smart Shopper loyalty programme continues to grow beyond its 9 million membership base, and increased participation has seen the total of unredeemed points climb to R245 million. This is up from R200-million in unredeemed points the retailer reported a few months ago, and says this is because more customers are swiping their cards more often to get savings. “Increased popularity means we now have more Smart Shoppers than ever before,” says Andrew Mills, Group Executive: Marketing at Pick n Pay. “For 10 years, customers have enjoyed the benefits of our loyalty programme but it is evident that…
Collective Benefits, an insurance and benefits marketplace for independent workers, today announced a $10 million or R154 million investment from Prosus Ventures, the venture investing arm of Prosus, one of the largest technology investors in the world. Collective Benefits offers much-needed insurance and benefits for independent workers across sectors. This includes sick pay, accident and injury insurance, wellness, financial and education support, as well as a perks marketplace. This new funding will allow Collective Benefits to expand its suite of products and services for independent workers, as well as continue to expand its presence as the market leader across Europe…
The countdown to summer is here. As the weather heats up, so does the chance of winning a share of R250 million worth of cash and prizes, plus a share of 1 Billion VodaBucks with the launch of Vodacom’s UnlockSummer campaign! 2021 has been a challenging year for South Africans, filled with difficulties in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Which is why Vodacom has upped the ante this summer to give back to its loyal customers, who stand a chance of unlocking prizes like one of three Kia Rio cars, one of 50 Honda Ace Scooters, Huawei laptops, grocery…
Facebook announced today that it is shutting down face recognition as part of a company-wide move to limit the use of facial recognition in its products. This change will represent one of the largest shifts in facial recognition usage in the technology’s history. “More than a third of Facebook’s daily active users have opted in to our Face Recognition setting and are able to be recognized, and its removal will result in the deletion of more than a billion people’s individual facial recognition templates,” said Jerome Pesenti, VP of Artificial Intelligence at Facebook. Making this change required careful consideration, because…
Streaming service giant Netflix announced Tuesday that it is taking first steps in launching games on mobile to the world. Starting today, members everywhere can play five mobile games: Stranger Things: 1984 (BonusXP), Stranger Things 3: The Game (BonusXP), Shooting Hoops (Frosty Pop), Card Blast (Amuzo & Rogue Games), and Teeter Up (Frosty Pop). “Whether you’re craving a casual game you can start from scratch or an immersive experience that lets you dig deeper into your favorite stories, we want to begin to build a library of games that offers something for everyone,” said Mike Verdu, Netflix VP, Game Development. “We’re in the early days of creating…
The shifting demands of electricity consumption, driven by the need to balance growing consumption with long-term environmental sustainability necessitates a rethink of how and from where we consume electricity. The importance of this rethink was underlined by the speakers at Huawei’s Digital Power summit in Johannesburg, attended by key delegates in the country’s energy sector. “Electricity drives economies, facilitates development and enriches our lives. But, in South Africa we have two issues that we need to solve when it comes to energy. First is the worsening loadshedding situation. And, the second is the rising cost of electricity,” said Huawei Southern…
Over the past two years, the oil and gas sector has faced immense challenges. The collapse in demand and price thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic and the growing imperative for environmental and climate sustainability in particular have underlined how much the sector needs to change if it is to survive and thrive going forward. That was among the key takeaways from Huawei Connect’s Intelligent Oil and Gas Summit, which took place virtually last week. “Global organisations are facing systemic challenges,” said David Sun, Vice President of Huawei Enterprise BG and President of the Global Energy Business Unit, Huawei. These challenges,…
BT and OneWeb have agreed terms for a new Distribution Partner Agreement, with OneWeb to provide Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite communication services across BT Group. This builds on an initial Memorandum of Understanding signed in July and means BT is testing how LEO satellite technology integrates with its existing terrestrial capabilities to meet the communications needs of customers. On successful completion, BT will commence the first live trials with customers from early next year. “The agreement between OneWeb and BT will help bring fast and reliable global connectivity, from the Highlands to the Himalayas,” Digital Secretary Nadine Dorries said.…
South Africa’s mining industry has made substantial progress in its journey towards digital transformation in the last decade, but to truly shift the mining sector into the Fourth Industrial Revolution, partnership and collaboration will be key. The role of collaboration in driving mining modernisation was explored by esteemed industry delegates at Huawei’s Mining Summit in Johannesburg on 28 October 2021. “Innovation doesn’t happen in a siloed space. It’s enabled by collaboration. It’s facilitated when people talk to one another and when they share ideas with one another. And, that’s why we have built and strengthened our partnerships with partners like…
Cisco and Makwa-IT have today come together to tackle the grassroot development challenges faced in South Africa through the announcement of their support of the Wot-if? Trust who manage and initiate a number of programmes and projects based on expressed community needs with a focus on CSI, Socio-Economic, Enterprise and Supplier Development programmes in Diepsloot. At a launch event at the Wot-if? premises, the program will see Makwa-IT donating resources to deploy networking technologies to the non-profit organisation (NPO), which will help them realise significant gains in productivity, scalability, and cost-efficiency, exclusively using Cisco solutions. Wot-if? enables platforms, programs and…
JSE and Nasdaq-listed Net1 UEPS Technologies is buying Fintech player Connect Group for R3.7 billion. The acquisition of the Connect Group, a profitable, high-growth and leading South African FinTech company, is transformational for Net1 in its journey to becoming South Africa’s leading FinTech platform. “Our vision is to transform Net1 into the leading South African fintech platform, offering payment processing and financial services to underserved merchants and consumers. The acquisition of the Connect Group transforms our merchant offering, MSME footprint and growth trajectory, while also uniquely positioning us to be the South African market leader serving both merchants and consumers,”…
Telkom has deployed the latest generation of W-LAN technology, the Wi-Fi 6 in support of the Local Government Elections 2021. Launched in 2019 and used for the first time in a South African election, the latest version of Wi-Fi technology will be one of the fit-for-purpose technologies deployed by Telkom for these elections. According to Prashil Gareeb, Managing Executive Wireless Solutions, Telkom continuously works to deploy the most advanced technologies for the Independent Electoral Commission. During the election period, the Telkom network supports multiple electoral officials, the security cluster, media and public officials. All are co-located at the nine main…
In the face of the global chip shortage, Bosch is increasing its capital expenditure. Just a few weeks after opening its new wafer fab in Dresden, the supplier of technology and services has now announced another nine-figure investment in its chip manufacturing facilities. In 2022 alone, Bosch plans to invest more than 400 million euros or R7.1 billion in expanding its wafer fabs in Dresden and Reutlingen, Germany, and its semiconductor operations in Penang, Malaysia. “Demand for chips is continuing to grow at breakneck speed. In light of current developments, we are systematically expanding our semiconductor production so we can…
Sasfin has announced that Sandile Shabalala will join them as Chief Executive of Business and Commercial Banking. Having successfully led the establishment and formal launch of the new TymeBank in February 2019, and, as former Managing Executive of Business Banking at Nedbank for 11 years, Sandile is a powerful addition to the purpose-driven bank. He will commence the position on January 2nd, Michael Sassoon, Group CEO of Sasfin, explains, “Based upon what we have planned, I couldn’t have asked for a better combination of experience than the track record Sandile has, having led a business banking unit within a large…
Takealot has announced that it will run a full month of Blue Dot Sale deals for a second year in a row, with countdown deals at Takealot’s Black Friday prices. Kicking off on 1 November, eager shoppers, looking for the best deals in South Africa, will be able to shop weekly Blue Dot Countdown deals across Takealot’s wide range of home, tech, sport, beauty and more. From 1 – 25 November, Takealot will release tens of thousands of deals each week in the lead-up to the epic five-day Blue Dot Sale. Week 1 (1 – 7 November): large appliances, TVs,…
People are turning to robots to support their career development after the COVID-19 pandemic left them feeling lonely and disconnected from their own lives, according to a new study by Oracle and Workplace Intelligence, an HR research and advisory firm. The study of more than 14,600 employees, managers, HR leaders, and C-level executives across 13 countries found that people all around the world have felt stuck in their personal and professional lives but are ready to regain control of their futures. The global workforce feels lonely, disconnected, and out of control More than a year in lockdown and the continued…
RecoMed, the largest and fastest growing online healthcare marketplace and booking platform in South Africa recently concluded a highly successful funding round of R21 million with a strong and diversified group of leading local and international investors. The round was led by Vunani Fintech Fund– an investment vehicle focused on digital and tech-based solutions– which made an investment of $1 million (USD), the equivalent of R15 million (ZAR). The round also included existing RecoMed investors AAIC (a Japanese private equity and venture capital fund focused on African investments), Growth Grid Venture Capital Partners, and Push Ventures based in Kenya. RecoMed,…
Atterbury, property investor and developer, is developing a new 24,000m² distribution centre (DC) for Takealot, South Africa’s largest online retailer, in Richmond Park, Milnerton, Cape Town. Takealot will begin operating from its Richmond Park DC from 1 August 2022. Construction of the 24,000m² facility consisting of 22,000m² of warehouse and 2,000m² of offices, has already commenced. The facility has been designed to provide Takealot with expansion options to add an additional 50,000m² of warehousing to the initial phase, which would increase its size to more than 70,000m². The new Takealot DC is designed for sustainability and will feature a dedicated…
Liquid Intelligent Technologies and Orange announced a new partnership to leverage each other’s existing networks in Africa, allowing them even greater access and opportunity to build their businesses throughout the continent. This partnership will give Liquid access to Orange’s extensive network in West Africa, including the new Djoliba network. Likewise, it will give Orange access to Liquid’s pan-African network. As a result, the two organizations will offer end-to-end high-speed connectivity and services across their networks, allowing existing and new customers in over 20 African countries greater access and opportunity to build their businesses. “We are excited about embarking on this…
ATEN International, provider of Audio Visual / Information Technology connectivity and management solutions, today announced it is establishing a local presence in Johannesburg, after being a player in the local market for the past six years. Customers will be able to enjoy local support and a virtual interactive showroom, for hands on training and product demonstration, all from the local office based in Hyde Park, Johannesburg. Benji Pienaar, Sales Manager at ATEN South Africa, explains that the company has made an extensive investment into opening an experience room or ‘showroom’ that will allow customers to experience much of the company’s…
In the face of rising unemployment in South Africa, B2B delivery-as-a-service platform OrderIn has launched a programme that aims to create opportunities for unemployed South African youth. With unemployment in South Africa hitting a new record high of 34.4% in the second quarter of 2021 (according to the latest data released by Statistics South Africa in August) – there has never been a more crucial time to galvanise the creation of initiatives with the sole purpose of combating unemployment, inequality and poverty in the country. The data shows that the youth are even harder hit – with 64% of young…
Temenos, the banking software company, today announced that Barko, a microfinance company, plans to enter the retail banking market in South Africa with a new digital bank built on Temenos Transact and powered by The Temenos Banking Cloud. Barko will leverage the full front-to-back services, giving the new bank total control to create banking products that are easy to consume, configure and integrate with external applications. With Temenos, Barko aims to disrupt the banking status quo with more accessible and affordable banking to advance the financial wellbeing of millions of South Africans underserved by traditional banks. Critically, the investment in…
Pan-African telecommunications services provider SEACOM has announced that it has completed the 100% acquisition of Hirani Telecom’s metro fibre network. The network will be incorporated into SEACOM’s existing metro network in Nairobi, and will be under its full control. Hirani Telecom is one of Kenya’s fastest-growing triple-play service providers and the largest last-mile provider in the region. The acquisition is part of SEACOM’s ongoing strategy in the region to grow its on-net capabilities and provide its enterprise customers with world-class connectivity. Steve Briggs, SEACOM CSMO, expands on what the acquisition will mean for the region: “This is a first step…
The South African United Business Confederation (SAUBC) will embark on a three-city drive, called “VISION SA Roadshow” between November 2021 and March 2022. Sponsored by ITEC Tiyende, and JCDecaux South Africa the VISION SA Roadshow, is a series of staged events to reintroduce the confederation to its key stakeholder. The tour will be centred around wine tasting & cocktail extravaganza with golf days to be staged in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town. The roadshow will start in Cape Town on November 5, followed by Johannesburg on the 11 and 12th of November. Durban and Cape Town will host the main…